Instant Calm: Over 100 Easy-to-Use Techniques for Relaxing Mind and Body
by Paul Wilson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Paul WilsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1995-05-01
ISBN: 0452274338
Number of pages: 322
Publisher: Plume
Book Reviews of Instant Calm: Over 100 Easy-to-Use Techniques for Relaxing Mind and Body
Book Review: A total waste of time
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm a practicing psychologist with several years experience as a therapist as well as a trainer of psychologists, psychiatrists and students. I have a lot of respect for self-help books. I read one or two a year. Most of them are pretty good. Some aren't. This one is the worst.
To begin with one should read the bio on Paul Wilson. He is the head of an advertising agency, in other words, a guy who is pretty good at hyping things, which is all he does in this book. If he went to college it isn't mentioned in the bio.
There are hundreds, maybe thousands of reasonable studies showing that various relaxation techniques work. Wilson cites none of them. It reads as if he was in a big hurry to meet his publisher's deadline for 100 techniques. There is no depth. It's impossible to tell what's useful, and in some cases, what he's even describing. Meditation, which has been shown to be very effective, gets only a few pages.
Although practically every page has an example of sloppy work I'll cite just two to make my point. On page 213 he attempts to explain "Meditation Goggles." His explanation is skimpy at best and ends with the following: "Try it. It could be the easiest way yet of discovering real calm." Really? How about taking some time to track down the efforts of some researchers who might have looked into this already? Also, in the unlikely event that a reader is motivated to try this out, there is no info provided on where to go for further info or product purchase.
On page 21 there is a silly little chart which tries to show a relationship between stress and performance. In psychology we've known for years about the Inverted U Curve. This looks a little bit like it but with some critical changes to make it useless.
There are many great relaxation books. I won't endorse any of them here. Read some reviews or if you don't have the time, throw the dice; you can definitely do better than this.
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